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Monday, 28 November 2016

Review - 'The Flash', S03E06 - 'Shade'

One regularly occurring issue with this
series (and, indeed, with all of the CW's DC related content) is
with the fact that so many of the 'one-off' villains that we have
met, over the past few years, have tended to feel rather generic and
undeveloped. More often than not, they seem to receive very little in
the way of either back-story, or motivation – leaving them as
little more than 'one-dimensional' villains. In all of those past
instances, though, you could at least make the argument that the
writer's did, at least, make some token effort at characterisation.
Shade, the new villain introduced in this episode, doesn't even
receive that much – something which is especially surprising,
considering the fact that the episode, itself, is named after him.

While the action sequences based around
this mysterious figure are somewhat entertaining, that is really all
that Shade was able to bring to the story. Shade is, in fact, treated
as little more than a 'movie monster' by the episode, itself – a
nameless, and faceless, threat who does not even warrant the very
basic level of characterisation that past villains have received. His
role is a simple one – to act as a distraction while Doctor Alchemy
moves forward on his current plans for Wally West.

Just as with those previous
'Flashpoint' villains, it seems that Doctor Alchemy is now determined
to give Wally the powers that he possessed in that alternate
time-line – with Wally now having strange dreams of his own life in
that alternate time-line. Perhaps understandably, given the clear
desire for powers of his own that he has already expressed, Wally is
also more than a little conflicted about the whole matter.

One very strange, though very
interesting, aspect of this entire plot-line stems from the fact that
we still know very little about Alchemy. We don't, for example, know
anything about his true motivations, or the extent of his abilities –
and, his focus on Wally, here, only seems to emphasise that fact.
With the villainous figures that we met in the past, it had seemed
pretty clear that Alchemy was playing on their desire for power, in
order to draw them to him, and to convince them to work for him. The
Rival, for example, had been a straight-forward villain who already
had plenty of reason to hate the Flash. Magenta was a young girl
suffering from split personalities – one of whom was violent,
angry, and extremely dangerous. And, Shade? Well, we don't really
learn anything about Shade.

Wally is very different, though. Wally
is, overall, a genuinely good person who, while he might somewhat
angry and resentful about his own lack of superpowers, seems
genuinely committed to the idea of helping people. More importantly,
though, he actually was a hero in 'Flashpoint'. So, because of that,
there is some lingering question about exactly Alchemy thinks he is
going to achieve by giving Wally these abilities – since it seems
fairly clear that Wally is never going to willingly work with
Alchemy, in the same way that those previous villains were. At the
same time, though, this episode also seems to reveal the possibility
that Alchemy is actually capable of controlling his victims, to some
extent – which opens up some very interesting, and very dramatic,
possibilities for the future. Clearly, there is still much more that
we need to learn about Doctor Alchemy – with both his true motives,
and the extent of his powers, being deliberately kept as a mystery.

This episode probably represent the
first time, in the entire series, where I have felt any sort of
investing in Wally West, as a character – and, honestly, it feels
as though it has taking much longer than it should have to reach this
point. Despite not being given very much to do, in his time on the
series, Keiynan Lonsdale still managed to turn Wally West into a
likable enough character (even if there were a few moments, earlier
in the season, that seemed to undermine that) – so, it is great him
finally become the centre of what actually feels like a fairly
significant plot-line. It is, also, genuinely great to see the actor
making the most of his time in the spot-light. Wally's brief
appearance as 'Kid Flash' had been one of the more interesting
aspects of the season's first episode, so I am definitely interested
in seeing how things play out from here.

On the other hand, though, I still
can't say that I'm all that interested in the challenges currently
faced by Caitlin Snow – with the series still going out of its way
to treat her own powers as something dangerous and threatening. As
much as the writers are clearly trying to milk the whole situation
for drama, and as well as Danielle Panabaker is playing her role, I'm
just having a hard time getting on board with the idea that her own
powers might actually 'turn her evil'. That just feels like lazy
writing, to me – and, there is nothing we have seen on the series
which lends any real support to the idea. So, as much as I may like
Caitlin Snow as a character, I just can't say that I feel any real
investing in this current character arc.

Of course, as far as the season's
overall progress is concerned, the episode's most important moment
comes at the very end – when we are given our first look at the new
speedster villain, Savitar. But, of course, we don't actually learn
anything about him, here – so, I'll reserve judgement, for now. I
will say, though, that the overall design of that outlandish, and
almost 'futuristic' looking, suit of armour that he wore was very
impressive – and, the whole idea of a villain who moved so fast
that only Barry was even capable of glimpsing him did seem like a
suitable upgrade to this season's overall 'threat level'.

Given how reliant this series has
become on introducing new speedsters as a challenge for Barry,
though, it still remains to be seen whether this new figure can
actually add anything of value to the season – or, whether it will
all end up feeling like a retread of the previous seasons. But, at
least, there does seem to be some potential, there – so, for now,
I'm prepared to wait and see.